We are still alive!

Aloha! Sorry it has taken us so long to update our blog! We have been to the local library numerous times since we have been here, but have had some technical difficulties on the few computers there are for us to use. We would love to upload some of the many pictures we have, but we will have to do that later when we can find a working USB port.

We are both doing well! Our first two weeks WWOOFing at Mauna Kea Tea Garden couldn't have gone better. Taka and Kimberly Ino, our gracious hosts, are kind and knowledgeable people from whom we're learning a lot about tea, and about day to day life on the farm. We are fully integrated into all the work done in planting, replanting, and harvesting the green tea they grow here. We just finished picking our winter harvest on Friday afternoon. (For those of you who are stuck in the frozen North, the temperature here is about 75 degrees every day. Jealous?)

We have gone to a few great beaches and hiked to a waterfall in Waipio Valley. We have been doing a lot of hitch hiking, which is the most reliable way for us to get around, and it's also a good way to meet people and make friends. Whether riding in the back of an aptly-named pickup truck or between the cushy pillows and hanging beads of a tripped out minivan, we're only a half hour's ride from Hapuna beach, a nice stretch of sand adjoining a fancy resort. That's another plus in Hawaii - all the beaches are public and free, even those connected to the golf courses where the fatcats play.

We are on the windward side of the island, so it rains here often, but the last four days we've had sun sun sun! The west side of the island is like an alien landscape compared to ours... in Honoka'a everything is green and lush, but passing through Waimea on the way to the beach is like stepping through a portal to the old west. Almost in the space of half a mile the terrain changes from verdant tropical splendor to a rocky rust-colored desert. The vista coming over the hill is one dominated by cattle ranches and cacti. Some of it is also sacred Hawai'ian land, which the fire goddess Pele claims as her own. Here and there the remnants of ancient heiaus(temples made of stone) can be seen on the arid dusty plains. We haven't been many other places yet but this island contains every possible climate and topography except Arctic tundra. We'll let you know if we encounter snow at the summit of Mauna Kea.

Also, we'll try to keep you all up to date but our posts on the blog will probably be pretty sporadic. Just know we're happy and healthy and stay tuned!